All News is Local — Something you already know about Google News is that we crawl thousands of sources from around the world. This means you get as many different perspectives on a story from many perspectives. A while back, we started thinking about how to bring this same diversity …

Welcome to the Neighborhood, Google — Gulp. — Silicon Valley CEO nightmare right out of central casting, right? In our case, Google launching a local news product that is targeted down to the ZIP code level, something we've had a lock on since 2004, and one of our clearest differentiators.

Look Out Topix - Google Launches Localized News Service — Topix has made a name by aggregating tens of thousands of local news sources and aggregating them online (they also like citizen journalists). It was only a matter of time before Google expanded their news product to compete more directly with Topix.

Rumor: Apple event the last week of February — TUAW has received a tip that the company that does television for Apple's live events and Macworld is apparently hiring for an unannounced Apple event at the end of February. Keep in mind that this is an unconfirmed rumor — while TUAW trusts our source …

OpenID Welcomes Microsoft, Google, Verisign and IBM — As anticipated by TechCrunch UK in early January, OpenID is welcoming some big new partners to the club - Microsoft, Google, Verisign and IBM (TechCrunch UK anticipated all but Microsoft). — Google has been dabbling with OpenID …

Google Properties Breakdown - by Pages — I wanted to follow up on a comment I received on my post last week with the Google Properties Breakdown. Gonçalo asks a great question - whether the ranking changes much if we look at page views rather than visits as websites.

Google tries to sneak “Team Edition” suite past IT help desk — February is turning out to be a busy month for Google's corporate IT initiatives. Earlier this week, the search giant announced a new, corporate-focused, suite of security and spam-filtering software suites under the “Powered by Postini” moniker.

The Evolution of Tech Companies' Logos — You've seen these tech logos everywhere, but have you ever wondered how they came to be? Did you know that Apple's original logo was Isaac Newton under an apple tree? Or that Nokia's original logo was a fish? — Let's take a look at the origin …

Apple Drops Out of NAB Show — Apple has announced that it will not have a booth at The NAB Show this year. — Rumor had been spreading on the Internet in recent days about Apple's presence at the show. Speculation increased after Avid Technology, the company's main competitor at the NAB Show dropped out late last year.

The Vista SP1 RTM Question — SJVN asked the question with respect to Windows Vista Service Pack 1, which released to manufacturing on Monday. He contends that there is no RTM, because the software won't be available for about another month. “Maybe it's just me, but mid-March doesn't sound like February 4th to me,” he writes.

Apple filing depicts Apple TV with iChat widget interface — A new and discrete patent filing on the part of Apple Inc. portrays previously undisclosed versions of the company's Apple TV set-top-box software and remote control that make extensive use of widgets to facilitate everything …

IBM shrinks Cell to 45nm. Cheaper PS3s will follow — SAN FRANCISCO — At an ISSCC session yesterday afternoon, IBM announced details of a smaller, lower-power version of the Cell BE processor that powers Sony's PlayStation 3. The Cell BE is currently fabricated on IBM's 65nm SOI process …

Facebook links up with Vodafone on mobile platform — Facebook took a new step into the mobile realm on Thursday, launching a platform for operators designed to make its social networking application work better on portable devices. — Vodafone is the first operator to use the Facebook …

Viacom to buy Take Two for $1.5 billion? — Industry rumours are building that Viacom has launched an official bid to seize control of Take Two Interactive. — The entertainment giant headed by Sumner Redstone is owner of MTV, Nickelodeon, Paramount Pictures and Dreamworks Studios.